Frequently Asked Questions

General

What is alice?

alice (formally alicehasnoidea) is a Slack-first ops automation tool for startups. It connects to your Stripe and Supabase data, lets you create saved queries called skills, and run them as /alice slash commands directly in Slack. Results come with action buttons for one-click operations like tagging a customer in Stripe or sending a Slack DM to a teammate.

The core value is combining data across sources. Instead of checking Stripe for payment failures and then cross-referencing with your database for login activity, you run /alice churn-risk and get a joined view with actions attached.

Who is alice for?

alice is designed for Series A startups with 10-50 employees that have ops roles -- RevOps, BizOps, Head of Ops, or founders who are tired of manually pulling metrics from multiple dashboards.

The ideal user has:

• A Slack workspace where the team communicates daily
• A Stripe account for billing and subscriptions
• A Supabase project (or PostgreSQL database) for their app data
• A need to pull metrics, share reports, and act on data without leaving Slack

If your team spends hours each week pulling numbers from Stripe and your database to answer questions like "What is our churn rate?" or "Which Pro customers have not logged in recently?", alice automates that entire workflow.

Do I need Slack to use alice?

Yes. alice is built exclusively for Slack. Authentication uses Slack OAuth, and all query results are delivered through Slack messages. There is no standalone web interface for running queries -- the dashboard is for configuration (creating skills, connecting sources, managing settings), while execution happens in Slack.

If your team does not use Slack, alice is not the right tool at this time.

What data sources does alice support?

Currently, alice supports two data sources:

Additional sources (Posthog, Intercom/Crisp, Linear, HubSpot) are planned for future releases. See Core Concepts for the roadmap.

Can I use alice with a regular PostgreSQL database (not Supabase)?

Currently, alice is designed to work with Supabase projects specifically. The source connection flow uses the Supabase project URL and API key. If you are using a standard PostgreSQL database without Supabase, alice does not support direct connections at this time.

Pricing

Is there a free tier?

Yes. The Free plan includes:

• 1 data source (Stripe or Supabase)
• 10 skills
• 50 queries per month (hard limit)
• 1 scheduled report (weekly frequency only)
• 3 monitors
• 7-day data retention
• No credit card required

The Free plan gives you enough capacity to evaluate alice and run a few core queries. If you need more sources, skills, or queries, upgrade to Pro.

How much does alice cost?

Annual billing saves approximately 17% on both Pro and Business plans. See Plans & Pricing for a full feature comparison.

Can I switch plans anytime?

Yes. You can upgrade or downgrade at any time from Settings > Billing.

• Upgrades take effect immediately. Your new plan limits and features are available right away.
• Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period. You retain full access to your current plan until then.
• Cancellations also take effect at period end. You can reactivate any time before the end date.

There are no long-term contracts or cancellation fees.

What happens if I hit my query limit?

It depends on your plan:

Free plan (hard limit): When you reach 50 queries, additional slash commands and scheduled reports are blocked. You will see an error message suggesting an upgrade. The counter resets at the start of the next billing cycle.

Pro and Business plans (soft limit): You will see a warning in the dashboard, but your queries continue to work without interruption. Soft limits exist for capacity planning -- your team is never locked out.

See Limits & Rate Limits for complete details on all limit types.

Does alice charge per team member?

No. All plans include unlimited team members. Your workspace is shared by everyone in your Slack workspace, and there is no per-seat fee.

Can I get a refund?

Contact us at support@alicehasnoidea.com for refund requests. We handle refunds on a case-by-case basis.

Security

How are my credentials stored?

All source credentials (Stripe API keys, Supabase connection details) are encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM (authenticated encryption). The encryption key is stored as an environment variable, separate from the database.

Credentials are:

• Never displayed in the dashboard -- you see connection status only
• Never logged in any log output, even in debug mode
• Never included in skill results or Slack messages
• Decrypted only in memory during query execution, then discarded

See Security for complete details on credential protection.

Can alice modify my data?

No. All queries run in read-only mode. This is enforced at multiple levels:

1. Query validation rejects any non-SELECT statement
2. The database connection has read_only = true set
3. Stripe skills only call read endpoints (GET requests)

The only modification alice makes to external data is the Tag in Stripe action, which adds a metadata key-value pair to a customer record. This is an explicit, user-initiated action -- not part of any query.

alice will never cancel subscriptions, delete customers, issue refunds, or perform any destructive operation. This is a core design principle. See Security for more.

What data does alice store?

alice stores:

Your raw source data (Stripe customers, Supabase tables) is queried in real-time and not stored. alice caches query results briefly for display purposes, but does not maintain a persistent copy of your source data.

Who can see my data?

Within your workspace, all members can view the dashboard, skills, and audit logs. In Slack, results default to ephemeral messages visible only to the person who ran the command.

alice staff does not have access to your source credentials or query results. We can see workspace metadata (plan, member count, skill count) for support purposes.

Is alice SOC 2 compliant?

Not yet. alice is a startup-stage product. We use Supabase (SOC 2 Type II compliant) for our database, Vercel for hosting, and follow security best practices including encryption at rest, RLS enforcement, and audit logging. As we grow, formal compliance certifications are on the roadmap.

Troubleshooting

Slack commands are not working

Follow these steps to diagnose:

1. Check the Slack connection: Go to Dashboard > Settings > Workspace and verify the status shows green (connected). If disconnected, click Reconnect Slack. See Slack Installation.

2. Invite alice to the channel: In the Slack channel where you are running commands, type /invite @alice. For ephemeral messages, the bot does not need to be in the channel, but for in-channel and scheduled reports, it does.

3. Verify a source is connected: Skills require at least one data source. Go to Dashboard > Sources and confirm at least one source shows a green connected status. See Connect Stripe or Connect Supabase.

4. Check the skill exists: Go to Dashboard > Skills and verify the skill you are trying to run is listed and active. Run /alice help in Slack to see all available skills.

5. Check rate limits: If you have been running many commands in a short time, you may have hit the rate limit of 30 executions per hour. Wait a few minutes and try again.

Queries return no results

If a skill runs successfully but returns empty results:

1. Check the time period: If the skill uses a date filter, verify the time period covers the data you expect. Try a wider range (e.g., --days=90 instead of --days=7).

2. Verify source data exists: Check directly in Stripe or Supabase that the data you expect is present. If your Stripe account has no customers, the customer list skill will return empty.

3. Review parameter values: Run /alice skill-name --help to see the parameters and their defaults. A filter that is too narrow may exclude all results.

4. Check RLS policies (Supabase): If your Supabase database has Row Level Security enabled, the credentials used by alice may not have access to the rows you expect. Verify the RLS policies for the relevant tables.

5. Test the query directly: In the skill builder, use the test panel to run the query with specific parameters and see the raw result.

Source connection failed

If connecting a data source fails:

1. Retry the OAuth flow: Go to Dashboard > Sources, remove the failed connection, and try again. OAuth tokens can expire during the flow if you take too long.

2. Check permissions: For Stripe, ensure you are using an account with admin access. For Supabase, verify the project URL and API key are correct.

3. Verify the service is online: Check Stripe's status page or Supabase's status page to confirm there are no outages.

4. Check browser settings: Some browsers block OAuth redirects in private/incognito mode. Try using a regular browser window.

5. Contact support: If the connection continues to fail, reach out to support@alicehasnoidea.com with the error message you are seeing.

Scheduled reports are not delivering

1. Check the schedule is active: Go to Dashboard > Skills, find the skill, and verify the trigger is toggled on (not paused).

2. Verify channel membership: alice must be a member of the target channel. In Slack, type /invite @alice in the channel. See Slack Installation.

3. Check your plan limits: The Free plan allows 1 scheduled report at weekly frequency only. If you have multiple schedules or need daily reports, upgrade to Pro.

4. Check the query limit: On the Free plan, scheduled reports count toward the 50-query monthly limit. If the limit is exhausted, reports are skipped. See Limits.

5. Verify the timezone: Schedules use your workspace timezone. If reports seem to run at the wrong time, check that the timezone is set correctly.

Action buttons are not appearing

1. Check your plan: Action buttons require the Pro Pro plan or higher. The Free plan does not include actions.

2. Verify actions are configured: Not all skills have actions attached. Open the skill in Dashboard > Skills > [Skill] > Edit and check the Format step for action configuration.

3. Check the result data: Actions require specific fields in the result (like a Stripe customer ID for "Tag in Stripe"). If the result does not include the required field, the action button will not appear.

Next Steps

• Quickstart -- Get set up in 5 minutes
• Plans & Pricing -- Compare all plans
• Security -- Full security details
• Slash Commands -- Complete command reference
• Limits -- All rate limits and quotas